Organic farmers and environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the agriculture department on Monday because of its cleansing signs to climate change from its location on the web.
The administration has ordered employees to download pages focusing on climate change on January 30, according to the case, which was submitted at the United States Court of the Southern Region in New York. Within hours, he said, the information began to disappear.
This included web sites that contain data groups, interactive tools and financing information on which farmers and researchers relied on planning and adaptation projects, according to the lawsuit.
At the same time, the administration also froze the funding promised by non -profit companies and organizations through conservation and climate programs. After that, “removing important information about these programs from the general registry, depriving farmers from accessing the resources they need to defend the money due.”
The Ministry of Agriculture did not immediately respond to the request for comment.
The lawsuit was filed by lawyers from Earthjustice, based in San Francisco, and the First Persian Institute amending at the University of Colombia, on behalf of the Northeastern Organic Agriculture Association in New York, based in Binghamton; The New York -based natural resource defense council; The ecosystem, based in Washington. The lawsuit said that the last two groups relied on the department’s website for their research and invitation.
Peter Lynar, a lawyer for Earthjustice, said the purified pages were decisive to farmers who face the risks associated with climate change, including thermal waves, droughts, floods, extreme weather and forest fires. Web sites contain information on how to reduce risks and adopt new agricultural techniques and strategies. Long -term weather data and trends are valuable in the agricultural industry for planning, research and business strategy.
“You can cleanse a website on the Internet of climate change, but this does not mean that climate change disappears,” said Mr. Linner.
The sites under the umbrella of the department include those in the service of forests, and are responsible for supervising forests and herbal lands; The service of maintaining natural resources, which helps land owners to implement preservation practices; And those of other sections focused on farms and farms, recovery from disasters and rural development.
Guidance to delete pages came via e -mail from Peter Rey, the director of digital communications at the ministry, according to the lawsuit.
Prosecutors claim that the procedures violated three federal laws and were “arbitrary, volatile, abuse of discretionary authority, or do not comply with the law.” They asked the court to force the agency to restore the pages and prevent them from deleting any other.
Wes Gillingham, Chairman of the Northeastern Agriculture Association in New York, said farmers were just heading to plan the summer growth season. He said that the informing of the information due to a “political agenda about climate change” was meaningless.
He was cultivated in Livingstone Manor, New York, in the Catskel Mountains, for 30 years, and is now raising the Icelandic sheep there. The vegetables had previously grown for a community -backed agricultural program, but it stopped about 20 years ago when his operation was eliminated by three huge floods in a five -year period.
Mr. Gillingham said his organization is the largest membership certificate in New York State, a major center for small farms. They often send farmers to the Ministry of Agriculture’s website to obtain information about things such as conservation programs and agricultural practices for grants and loans. It also directs people to resources such as lending equipment.
“At the present time, due to climate change and because of the farmers facing it in terms of harsh weather events, we need every part of the available information we can obtain,” he said. “We don’t have access to it, we will not make it.”